My hero:

Teacher of year snubs Bush aide over gaffe

The Massachusetts teacher of the year refused to attend an event in Washington honoring the nation's top educators because US Education Secretary Rodney Paige had called the nation's largest teachers' union a "terrorist organization."

Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School who lost a friend in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he could not accept Paige's apology for the Feb. 23 remark about the 2.7-million-member National Education Association.

Paige said the reference to terrorism was a "bad joke." But Ryan said: "Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. . . . and terrorism isn't funny. I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."...

--AP